As one of the great Perth radio presenters of all time, JK Watts often sang and carried on about how, as a footballer, he was "the best ever".  

It is a funny thing to say about yourself, especially in Australia.

But could he really play? Was he any good?

Yep, he could, and yes he was.

Watts, who passed away on Saturday after a long battle with cancer, was a premiership player with East Perth in 1956, 1958 and 1959, and coached by the legendary Jack Sheedy, playing alongside Polly Farmer, Ted Kilmurray and others with names like Webster, Earnshaw and Kevin McGill.

A talented defender and ruck rover in a tough era, John K Watts also won premierships in the VFL (with Geelong in 1963) and Tasmanian football league (with Hobart in 1966 as captain coach), becoming the only Australian Rules footballer to win three premierships with three different teams in three different states.

As an 18-year-old in 1956, Laurie Kennedy was the Royals team youngster and remembers JK the footballer as a flamboyant but "good player".

"He was a bit of a fancy pants," Kennedy told 6PR Afternoons.

"Wattsy would have the socks but outside of the socks he would have the white bandages on so everyone knew Wattsy was there.

"He wouldn't just take a mark... he would put it behind his head and flick the ball backwards and forwards ... 'did you see that one! How good was that?', so Wattsy was a showman all the time."

Kennedy, himself a triple premiership player in the same teams as Watts, compared him to intercept specialist defender Jeremy McGovern in the current Eagles team.

"Wattsy was that sort and he was fairly mobile. Quite regularly, he would take off from the backline and head off and do the bouncing and try to attack as best he could," Kennedy recalled.

JK Watts was the only footballer to win three premierships with three different teams in three different states.

"(But) Wattsy was a very good mark.  There's times you would be standing there in the back pocket and next thing over the top there'd be this big bloody knee in your back and there's Wattsy taking a 'speccy' over you."

Any chat about John Watts the footballer soon turns to the related topic of JK the larrikin. 

There was that time when East Perth were building a new grandstand and veteran club administrator Hec Strempel couldn't understand how the builder was short so many bricks.

Kennedy reckons the mystery was solved when the team went out to a function on Peninsula Road in Maylands.

"Sure enough, there's all these bricks, there's a retaining wall, there's a BBQ. Wattsy had knocked them off," Kennedy said.

John Watts played 166 games for East Perth and 52 for Geelong between 1954 and 1965, winning four flags.

He could talk, he could sing, but he could really play football.

Simon Beaumont presents the Afternoons show on Radio 6PR